The Cost
by mentalist777
Summary: What if there was an unknown side effect of the Shadow clone jutsu? and now it's time Naruto paid the piper. unconscious and slowly dying it is up to Sakura, Kakashi, Shkamaru and Neji to save Naruto. Will they succeed or will Naruto pay The Cost?


**DISCLAIMOR: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO IT BELONGS TO KISHIMOTO.**

 **We all know about Naruto's signature Shadow clone jutsu, we all know the risks, or do we?** **What** **if there was a risk to the jutsu that even the 2** **nd** **Hokage hadn't known about when he made it? And what happens when it's time for Naruto to pay the cost? Can his friends save him or is he doomed to die from the downside of his most beloved jutsu? How will this affect the Naruto world in total? Well let's find out shall we? Takes place before Sasuke retrieval but after Tsunadae becomes Hokage. Naruto x Sakura pairing just so you know.**

Chapter 1

The Cost revealed.

"So good work everyone on today's mission." Kakashi said to team 7 as they finished plucking weeds from the local garden.

"It was only a D rank Kakashi sensei." Sakura said.

"Hn" Sasuke unsurprisingly said.

Kakashi looked back at Naruto who was walking behind the rest of team 7. This was odd since he'd usually walk almost side by side with his teammates. Well that and there were 6 Naruto's.

"Naruto" Kakashi said to get his attention, when he saw the blond look up he saw that he was a little bit pale and he didn't seem to have as much energy as he usually did. This worried Kakashi because due to Naruto's Uzumaki lineage he should be virtually immune to most illnesses. When he saw he had the boys attention he decided to question him.

"Hey Naruto are you feeling okay?" the boy nodded his hand and tried to smile.

"Yeah I must be training too hard the last couple of days." Kakashi kept looking at him.

"Still I'm going to take you to see lady Tsunadae when we get back to the village." He said, but before he turned around he added one last quick thing.

"Oh, Naruto you might want to dispel those shadow clones." Naruto looked startled for a moment almost as if he had forgotten they were there. Stranger still these clones looked perfectly healthy; they were smiling and talking loudly amongst themselves. Naruto released the jutsu as they all poofed out of existence he turned and when his team saw that he was ready to go they all began the walk back to the village. It was strangely quiet as Naruto didn't talk his teammates were worried about him as well as they tried a few times to start a conversation with him. He would respond to what they had to say but that was about it. After a long period of the unnerving silence Kakashi thought that maybe Naruto could use a bit of cheering up something to look forward to.

"Hey Naruto how about after lady Hokage sees you I'll take you out for ramen as much as you want. It' on me." After waiting a moment without a response Kakashi mearly thought that Naruto hadn't heard him and began to turn around to repeat what he had said when he heard something that made fear cling to him.

"NARUTO!" he heard Sakura's frightened scream he and Sasuke quickly spun around and there behind them lay Naruto.

Kakashi ran up to him as fast as he could.

"Naruto! Are you alright" of course he's not alright he's laying on the ground, he told himself. "Naruto, say something!" he checked for a pulse and found one feeling fear fall off him partially knowing his student was still alive.

"Sensei." He heard a small scared voice behind him and turned and saw Sasuke and Sakura with Sakura having asked the question.

"He's alive." He said seeing relief on their faces. "Can you get to the village from here on your own?" he asked. Seeing them nod. He picked Naruto up.

"Good, I'm going to go ahead and take Naruto to see lady Hokage so meet me at the hospital when you get there."

After that he took off at top speed increasing his speed with chakra as much as he could. He would do whatever it takes to keep this boy alive.

When Sakura and Sasuke had arrived at the waiting room near where various medical ninja were working on him to find the problem. When they saw Kakashi he didn't have his book out and he had a look of pure concentration, he was concentrating on his train of thought so much that he didn't even notice the two genin walk up to him.

"Kakashi sensei?" Sakura asked startling the jounin.

"Yes, Sakura?"

She opened her mouth to respond but Sasuke spoke first.

"How's the idiot doing?" Kakashi looked out towards the room where his student and the Hokage was.

"Apparently there's nothing wrong with Naruto physically, so." However before he could continue Sakura spoke up again.

"But nobody just passes out for no reason at all!"

"I said there was nothing wrong with him _PHYSICALLY_." Kakashi told her. "Inoichi Yamanaka is in there seeing if the problem is mental. Until then there's nothing we can do but wait."

During the time they waited many people had heard of Naruto and came to wait. One of the first to arrive were the Ichiraku's who had closed shop early to wait for some news. Iruka came next with the Konohamaru squad in tow. Then came the different teams from the rookies with all of them looking worried. They may not had liked Naruto in the past but they now looked at him as a friend.

Finally the doors opened and Inoichi came out with the Hokage and a man with long white hair pulled into a pony tail and the Kanji for Oil on his head band.

Everyone in the room stood up waiting for whatever news they had.

The Hokage was the first to speak.

"We've found the cause of the problem. Now the only remaining problem is that one of you will have to lead a team on a S-class mission to save Naruto."

Kakashi immediately stepped forward.

"I'll lead the mission."

Tsunadae shook her head.

"No only one person here can do this mission." Now Sakura asked the question on everyones minds.

"Who? And where are we supposed to go?" Tsunadae pointed at Sakura.

"You need to go inside Naruto's mind."


End file.
